Personal photo “Two-am,” “Two-em,” “Twam,” “Chew-em,” ah, shoot! In this recent blog post, one reader asked how to correctly pronounce Tuam. She’s apparently not the only one wondering about that street, as this discussion on the Houston Architecture Info forum indicates. Personally, I always pronounced it as “Two-om.” Rhymes with “Tom.” I googled Tuam and […]
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Marks Hinton’s “Historic Houston Streets: The Stories Behind the Names” explains the origins of many area streets. The 235-page book is the result of more than six years of research tracking down how some of Houston’s well-worn thoroughfares got their names. I recently posed a few questions for Hinton: Q: What is the oddest-named street […]
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I recently picked up a copy of Marks Hinton’s Historic Houston Streets: The Stories Behind the Names. Sure, we all know who Travis, Lamar, Fannin and Milam streets are named after. (If you don’t, you’re either from out of state or you slept during Texas history in school.) But, yes, I’ll admit, some of the […]
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Owen Johnson : Post file Lyons at Jensen, October 1956 Personal photo The intersection today. For a while, I wondered if I photographed the right intersection. I’m still not 100 percent sure; the change is just so drastic. In the Post photo, you’ll see the old Roxy Theatre, 2737 Lyons. Here’s a Google Maps link […]
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Press, top, and Post headlines, July 10, 1919 The trip lasted 90 minutes and covered about 115 miles. For many of the dozen men who went up in a Handley Page on July 9, 1919, it was their first time aboard that newfangled contraption called an airplane. Among those who took part in this historic […]
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Chronicle file Wreck at Memorial, near Shepherd, January 1960. W.B. Pearson, of the 6600 block of Letein, probably didn’t see the humor connected to this Great Southern Life Insurance billboard on this January night 47 years ago. According to the Chronicle, Pearson failed to make a curve on Memorial, near Shepherd, and lost control of […]
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Bud Bentley : Post illustration/Fred Bunch : Post file Houston skyline in 2000, as imagined in the late 1970s You knew there had to be a post on a day like today, right? As we celebrate Houston’s 171st birthday today, let’s take a look at how the Post — in the late 1970s — envisioned […]
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Eight women who gathered to play poker one June day in 1955 probably didn’t bet on being charged for violating gaming laws. The women were playing high-low split with a two-bit limit when Houston police raided the home in the 200 block of Colquitt on June 14. On the table was about $20. “This woman […]
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Dan Hardy : Post file Pedestrian bridge over Buffalo Drive, January 1956. Personal photo The pedestrian bridge today. The January 1956 photo above shows workers putting the finishing touches on the steel and concrete walkway over what’s now Allen Parkway. The Post said the overpass, along with a similar structure being built over Memorial Drive, […]
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